Title : Images, Anxieties, and Attitudes toward Mathematics

Author

:ShashidharBelbase

Volume 1, Number 4, October 2013 page 230-237

This article is very interesting and useful for the reader. It gives
us knowledge about relationship of images, anxieties, and attitudes
towards mathematics that can help teachers in effective teaching. It
can also give a motivation for students to study mathematics.
The purpose of this article is to discuss and analyze images,
anxieties, and attitudes toward mathematics in order to foster
meaningful teaching and learning of mathematics. This article
reviewed some previous studies on the same topic under study. So,
from that we can know the relationship and the impact of images,
anxieties, and attitudes toward mathematics. We hope the readerss
can understand this article easily.
The affective states in learning are images of mathematics,
mathematics anxiety, and attitude toward mathematics. There are
two kinds of images that as an objects or as an abstraction. The
images as objects is related to symbols. It seem to be static view that
visualizes mathematics as a subject matter. The image as abstraction
is related to operation. It seems to be dynamic that visualizes
mathematics as a process or operation. (Ernest, 2008) said that a
widespread public image of mathematics in the west is that it is
difficult, cold, abstract, theoretical, and ultra-rational and also
important and largely masculine. In fact, the world-wide consensus of
mathematics educators is that school mathematics must counter that
image and offer, instead, something that is personally engaging and
useful, or motivating in some other way, if is to fulfill it is social
functions (Howson and Willson, 1986; NCTM, 1989; Skovsmose,
1994).
Another affective factor in learning mathematics is anxiety. It is
an anxious state in respond to mathematics-related situation that are
perceived as threatening to self-esteem. There are two general types
of anxiety: trait and state. Trait anxiety has a characteristic tendency
to feel anxious across all types of situations. In contrast, individuals
possessing state anxiety tend to experience it only in specific
personally stressful or fearful situation. Students under this anxiety
have a fear of mathematics class, homework, exam and any situation
when comes to mathematics. Individuals with high anxiety show
poorer performance on various tasks than low anxiety individuals. So

both of state and trait anxiety affect task performance in

mathematics ( e,g., MacLeod & Donnellan,1993; Miller &Bichsel,
2004).
The last affective states is attitude toward mathematics. Images
of mathematics as perceived by a person develop his or her positive
or negative attitude towards mathematics. Students interest or
motivation in learning mathematics was found to be correlated
positively with studying of mathematics involving understanding and
reflection, with high performance at school and with the ability to
understand mathematical proofs. Students dont have interesting
assumption that this independence was strongly expressed in
characterizing mathematics as useful/useless and easy / difficult
subject. Positive and negative attitude students toward mathematics
have significant impact on students learning of mathematics and
achievement.
From the explanation of three affective states, we can find that
images of mathematic as infallible or fallible, mathematics anxiety as
high or low self-esteem, and attitude towards mathematics as positive
or negative that can model into a triangular relation. It has eight
possible outcomes from the model representing different perceptions
about mathematics including : (1) Infallible, high self-esteem,positive
attitude; (2) Infallible, high self-esteem, negative attitude; (3)
Infallible, low self-esteem, positive attitude; (4) Infallible, low selfesteem, negative attitude; (5) fallible, high self-esteem,positive
attitude; (6) fallible, high self-esteem,negative attitude; (7) fallible,
low self-esteem,positive attitude; (8) fallible, low self-esteem,negative
attitude.
The combinations (1), (4), (5), and (8) look practically viable
psychological states in term of the interrelation of images, anxieties,
and attitudes. Other combinations may be theoretically viable, but
they look to be non-practical because there are contradict of them.
The first combination is possible to develop a perception towards
mathematics as absolute, infallible and incorrigible. The student with
this kind of personality enjoys routine problem solving, follows a rigid
procedure to solve problems, and values high scores in tests. The
fourth combination of infallible, low self-esteem and negative attitude
is a problematic situation. Teacher centered teaching and learning
that have fewer activities in the class for students, less emphasis to
group or peer works, less questioning by the students, and
authoritative instruction may result into law self-esteem and negative
attitude towards mathematics. The fifth combinations develops the
personality of students to question mathematical objects and

processes, maintain high self-esteem about learning mathematics and

think positively about his or her ability to learn mathematics. Students
enjoy non-routine type unstructured problem solving. The eighth
combination leads to the development a perception that
mathematical objects are socially constructed, fallible, and
questionable. The teacher can help such students with low selfesteem to develop high self-esteem by changing the pace of learning
and helping him or her to learn from contexts to unstructured problem
solving.
So from different students ability, the teacher can choose a
method that used to teach. Method that used is the implications of
relationship among images, anxiety, and attitude towards
mathematics. A positive relationship can make a balance of teaching
and learning. In teaching, the teacher helps student develop the skills
they can use to solve mathematical, non-mathematical, and nonroutine problems. In learning, the students can develop their ability to
reason mathematically or quantitatively, to clarify and justify
mathematical ideas, to use mathematical and other resources, to
work collaboratively with other people, and to be able to generalize
situations, as well as the their ability to carry out mathematical
computations and procedures(Zemelman, Daniels, & Hyde, 1998).